1 It never snowed on the planet Jumpinveps. In fact, it barely rained. The year 2076 brought a new phenomenon within the reach of the people of Jumpinveps...snow! In 2076 advances in technology brought big changes to Jumpinveps. The speed of interplanetary travel had increased greatly, and it was not unusual to make it from Jumpinveps to Earth in about 2 hours. It was a far cry from 20 years ago, when the journey took two years. The Jumppie (the people of Jumpinveps) loved to learn about Earth. Some Jumppie vacationed there. In years past there were very few that could afford to take the trip, though. Only the most privileged Jumppie could go. There were many things to see on Earth, but the thing that the Jumppie were most fascinated with was the sport of snow skiing.2 Now the trip only took two hours, and there were many more interplanetary air buses. The cost had dropped significantly, and many Jumppie made their first trip to Earth to see snow and try the sport. An Earth boy named Jose saw a group of Jumppie while he was skiing. After spending the afternoon with them, he could not wait to tell his friend Raphael what had happened.3 January 15, 20764 Dear Raphael,5 Today I was at the ski slopes, and you should have seen it. It was pretty funny. A bunch of those people from the planet Jumpinveps visited Earth for the first time today.6 It was pretty funny to watch the Jumppie learn to ski for the first time. They are used to going around on pogo sticks, but when it comes to staying on skis that go straight down a hill - FAST - they are, you could say, all thumbs. Plus, most of them have never even seen snow, so their reactions when they see it for the first time are, well, unusual.7 I was watching some of them today and could barely keep from cracking up. They got off their air bus and very carefully stepped down onto the pavement covered with a thick pad of white snow. They stepped gingerly, almost as if they were afraid of falling through.8 After a few minutes, most Jumppie seemed to relax, but one in particular did not. He looked around warily, like he couldn't believe or accept what he saw. He reached down to feel the snow, and (it was so funny!) he jumped back like he got burned or something. I guess he didn't realize how cold snow could be!